A definition is the start of an argument, not the end of one.

...there must be a sequence to learning, that perseverance and a certain measure of perspiration are indispensable, that individual pleasures must frequently be submerged in the interests of group cohesion, and that learning to be critical and to think conceptually and rigorously do not come easily to the young but are hard-fought victories.

An educated mind is practiced in the uses of reason, which inevitably leads to a skeptical outlook.

Technology always has unforeseen consequences, and it is not always clear, at the beginning, who or what will win, and who or what will lose.

Reading is the scourge of childhood because, in a sense, it creates adulthood.

When a population becomes distracted by trivia, when cultural life is redefined as a perpetual round of entertainments, when serious public conversation becomes a form of baby-talk, when, in short, a people become an audience, and their public business a vaudeville act, then a nation finds itself at risk; culture-death is a clear possibility.

If parents wish to preserve childhood for their own children, they must conceive of parenting as an act of rebellion against culture